Citrate-directed hydrothermal synthesis of ZnCo2O4-in-carbon porous microspheres for highly reliable lithium-ion batteries

• Published in: Ionics Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 703 - 710
• Main Authors: Ding, Chuan, Xu, Weilong, Zeng, Xueqin, Wang, Min, Wang, Wei, Qing, Zhou
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.02.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anodes; Carbon; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Cobalt; Condensed Matter Physics; Electrochemistry; Electrode materials; Energy Storage; Heat treatment; Ion transport; Lithium-ion batteries; Microspheres; Optical and Electronic Materials; Original Paper; Porous materials; Rechargeable batteries; Renewable and Green Energy; Lithium-ion batteries; Cyclic reliability; Porous ZnCo; C microspheres; High rate performance; Citrate-assisted hydrothermal process; O; Composite pattern
• ISSN: 0947-7047; 1862-0760
• DOI: 10.1007/s11581-019-03281-1

ZnCo 2 O 4 -C porous microspheres featured with ZnCo 2 O 4 -in-carbon microstructure are successfully synthesized by a simple citrate-directed hydrothermal process. The experimental results reveal that the polymerization reaction of glucose and Zn 2+ , Co 2+ ions directed by citrate molecules play a critical role in the formation of microspheric Zn-Co / C precursors, which can subsequently be transformed into ZnCo 2 O 4 -C porous microspheres after thermal treatment. When applied as anode material in LIBs, ZnCo 2 O 4 -C porous microspheres exhibited high available capacity of 998.5 mAh g −1 at 1 A g −1 after 200 cycles and 622.5 mAh g −1 at 4 A g −1 over 1000 cycles. The excellent performance can be attributed to the unique structure of ZnCo 2 O 4 -C porous microspheres, which provide enhanced electron/ion transport and improved strain accommodation etc.